Home Ministry to deploy 1,000 immigration officials at IGI airport in Delhi

The home ministry will hire 1,000 officials who will be deployed at immigration counters in Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport in a bid to end serpentine queues and ease travel woes, officials said today.

Immigration authorities are planning to reduce this to 30 seconds, but that will take some time, they said. (PTI)

The home ministry will hire 1,000 officials who will be deployed at immigration counters in Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport in a bid to end serpentine queues and ease travel woes, officials said today. The competent authority has given approval to the Bureau of Immigration for appointing 1,000 immigration assistants on a contractual basis, a home ministry official said. Approval has also been given for the conversion of 350 posts from higher to lower grade, thereby giving more scope to recruit ex-servicemen from the Intelligence Bureau and Central Armed Police Force on contractual basis. The deployment of additional personnel will augment manpower strength at immigration counters to enable the staff to provide professional and courteous service to travellers, an official said. He did not specify the time frame for when this would happen. There has been a 30 per cent increase in international passengers at the IGI airport in the last two years, with serpentine queues at immigration desks, another official said.

The government has a policy to encourage foreigners to come to India for tourism, medical tourism, business and studies and several initiatives have been taken to improve visa and immigration services to provide them with a pleasant experience, the official said. The decisions will substantially improve immigration services at IGI airport, facilitating not only foreigners coming to India but also Indians travelling abroad. According to officials, each passenger spends about 90 seconds at an immigration counter. Immigration authorities are planning to reduce this to 30 seconds, but that will take some time, they said.

The government plans to increase the number of operational immigration counters at the airport from 85 to 95 by month-end. Besides, 25 additional counters for electronic visa (e-visa) facility will also be made functional by January-end, for which the Bureau of Immigration is making arrangements for manpower and other infrastructure as planned, the official said.